Naked truth of our school sports
Why a country of over 100 crore can’t produce Olympic champions? This pic gives you the answer
By Charu Pant and Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Thursday, December 25, 2008 at 06:40:28 PM ( Ahmedabad Mirror Cover Story : http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20Cover%20Story§id=2&contentid=2008122520081225184028658d8c99ec5 )
This boy is no street urchin. He is a kho-kho player representing Gujarat in the National School Games and taking a bath in Delhi on Wednesday when the lowest temp was 9oC. To put things in perspective, the minimum temp in Ahmedabad on Wed was 15oCA day after Ahmedabad Mirror exposed how the Gujarat contingent of 126 students and 12 officials for the on-going National School Games was put up in just four filthy and dilapidated rooms of an under-construction school in Delhi (Shame Games, December 24), more horror stories of our kids’ suffering have come to the fore.While the Gujarat tennis squad of 30 players managed to shift out of the hellhole to the safe confines of Shree Gujarati Samaj in Delhi’s Civil Lines area and in a hotel in Adarsh Nagar, courtesy parents of some of the tennis players who were travelling with the team, almost 80 students from the state are still stuck in the school — Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya in Model Town — which, by no stretch of imagination, can be dubbed fit for human existence.A young kho-kho player was forced to take bath in the open as bathrooms were under renovation, the rooms were stuffed with as many as 36 players in a single room, the school building in tatters with sign board warning of a possible wall collapse, and the washrooms filthy and unhygienic.The scarcity of toilets in the school forced some boys to take shower in the ladies toilet.Said Chhaya Deshmukh, whose daughter Nikita, from Nalanda Vidyalaya in Ghatlodia, is part of the tennis squad, “We were allotted rooms that were reopened after — can you believe it — 15 years!! It was so filthy, my daughter started throwing up. We (the parents) offered to clean up the rooms but the school authorities didn’t allow us to do so. It is a shame.”
Check out the warning in blue letters. It says the structure is weak, and it can collapse anytime. People are warned not to stand under the rampsAdded another parent, Saumil, whose son is still lodged in the horrific school, “I spoke to my child and I am thinking of rushing to Delhi. He told me there is no facility for hot water. Leave alone hot water, the children remained awake all night to take a bath as there is only one bathroom there. And that too is filthy.”Saumil futher said, “I wonder what will happen to my child. He is staying in that dirty school with filthy toilets. I am feeling so terribly helpless.”Shockingly, some of the Gujarat basketball players used the washroom of a McDonalds outlet nearby. Said a parent, Arman Hazarika, whose son Tanvir, from Delhi Public School, Gandhinagar, was aghast at the living conditions in Delhi.Said Hazarika, “The food was terrible and not at all nutritious. We take our children outside. No milk was provided. We had to buy milk and water bottles. We were not asking for five star hotels. At least, our kids deserve basic amenities. How can India expect medals anywhere when the junior level is being treated like this!”From Ahmedabad, majority of the participants belong to Anand Niketan School, Shilaj, Mount Carmel School, Ashram Road, R H Kapadia School, Satellite, Nalanda Vidyalaya, Ghatlodia, Rachna High School, Shahibaug, Tulip International School, Bopal and Delhi Public School, Gandhinagar.Obviously, the school managements are livid as the way their students are treated. In fact, the R H Kapadia School management paid money from its coffers to shift their kids out of the filthy school.Said Rupal Kapadia, principal, R H Kapadia School, “No way would we have allowed our children to stay in such filthy conditions. We shifted our kids to the Gujarati Samaj and paid for the room charges.”Filthy lodging conditions just tell one side of the story about the Games, being organised by the School Games Federation of India (SGFI).
Two Gujarat athletes outside their living hell in Delhi, the Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya, on Wednesday. On right is the backyard of the school, where construction activity is on in full swing The basic management of the event has come for even a bigger shock to the participants. For Thursday’s singles event in tennis, the draw was not known to the participants till Wednesday night.Said a player from Gujarat, “We went to the officials and asked them for the singles draw a number of times. And they replied, “Nationals ke liye aaye ho, mazee karo (You have come here for Nationals, enjoy yourself).”The player further said, “The events were not being held according to the schedule. Whoever reaches the stadium gets to play the match first. Everything is disorganised. We have to buy drinking water, both at the stadium and where the authorities wanted us to stay.”The SGFI president, Satpal Singh, was unfazed. He parroted, “We are doing our best.”
By Charu Pant and Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Thursday, December 25, 2008 at 06:40:28 PM ( Ahmedabad Mirror Cover Story : http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20Cover%20Story§id=2&contentid=2008122520081225184028658d8c99ec5 )
This boy is no street urchin. He is a kho-kho player representing Gujarat in the National School Games and taking a bath in Delhi on Wednesday when the lowest temp was 9oC. To put things in perspective, the minimum temp in Ahmedabad on Wed was 15oCA day after Ahmedabad Mirror exposed how the Gujarat contingent of 126 students and 12 officials for the on-going National School Games was put up in just four filthy and dilapidated rooms of an under-construction school in Delhi (Shame Games, December 24), more horror stories of our kids’ suffering have come to the fore.While the Gujarat tennis squad of 30 players managed to shift out of the hellhole to the safe confines of Shree Gujarati Samaj in Delhi’s Civil Lines area and in a hotel in Adarsh Nagar, courtesy parents of some of the tennis players who were travelling with the team, almost 80 students from the state are still stuck in the school — Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya in Model Town — which, by no stretch of imagination, can be dubbed fit for human existence.A young kho-kho player was forced to take bath in the open as bathrooms were under renovation, the rooms were stuffed with as many as 36 players in a single room, the school building in tatters with sign board warning of a possible wall collapse, and the washrooms filthy and unhygienic.The scarcity of toilets in the school forced some boys to take shower in the ladies toilet.Said Chhaya Deshmukh, whose daughter Nikita, from Nalanda Vidyalaya in Ghatlodia, is part of the tennis squad, “We were allotted rooms that were reopened after — can you believe it — 15 years!! It was so filthy, my daughter started throwing up. We (the parents) offered to clean up the rooms but the school authorities didn’t allow us to do so. It is a shame.”
Check out the warning in blue letters. It says the structure is weak, and it can collapse anytime. People are warned not to stand under the rampsAdded another parent, Saumil, whose son is still lodged in the horrific school, “I spoke to my child and I am thinking of rushing to Delhi. He told me there is no facility for hot water. Leave alone hot water, the children remained awake all night to take a bath as there is only one bathroom there. And that too is filthy.”Saumil futher said, “I wonder what will happen to my child. He is staying in that dirty school with filthy toilets. I am feeling so terribly helpless.”Shockingly, some of the Gujarat basketball players used the washroom of a McDonalds outlet nearby. Said a parent, Arman Hazarika, whose son Tanvir, from Delhi Public School, Gandhinagar, was aghast at the living conditions in Delhi.Said Hazarika, “The food was terrible and not at all nutritious. We take our children outside. No milk was provided. We had to buy milk and water bottles. We were not asking for five star hotels. At least, our kids deserve basic amenities. How can India expect medals anywhere when the junior level is being treated like this!”From Ahmedabad, majority of the participants belong to Anand Niketan School, Shilaj, Mount Carmel School, Ashram Road, R H Kapadia School, Satellite, Nalanda Vidyalaya, Ghatlodia, Rachna High School, Shahibaug, Tulip International School, Bopal and Delhi Public School, Gandhinagar.Obviously, the school managements are livid as the way their students are treated. In fact, the R H Kapadia School management paid money from its coffers to shift their kids out of the filthy school.Said Rupal Kapadia, principal, R H Kapadia School, “No way would we have allowed our children to stay in such filthy conditions. We shifted our kids to the Gujarati Samaj and paid for the room charges.”Filthy lodging conditions just tell one side of the story about the Games, being organised by the School Games Federation of India (SGFI).
Two Gujarat athletes outside their living hell in Delhi, the Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya, on Wednesday. On right is the backyard of the school, where construction activity is on in full swing The basic management of the event has come for even a bigger shock to the participants. For Thursday’s singles event in tennis, the draw was not known to the participants till Wednesday night.Said a player from Gujarat, “We went to the officials and asked them for the singles draw a number of times. And they replied, “Nationals ke liye aaye ho, mazee karo (You have come here for Nationals, enjoy yourself).”The player further said, “The events were not being held according to the schedule. Whoever reaches the stadium gets to play the match first. Everything is disorganised. We have to buy drinking water, both at the stadium and where the authorities wanted us to stay.”The SGFI president, Satpal Singh, was unfazed. He parroted, “We are doing our best.”
